Jules Nijhuis | AGT5A | 14-05-2019 | D.

Tattersall

Outline
The question I chose for this critical response is: Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or
silenced within the text?

The text I will be discussing in this critical response is: type 3, a text that has been read in class.

The novel I have chosen for this critical response is: Purple Hibiscus (2003).

Written by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The topics I will be discussing in this critical response are:

 The silencing of Kambili in Purple Hibiscus and the breakthrough surrounding this topic
happening throughout this novel.
 The silencing of the mother of Kambili and how she deals with the silence and how she
breaks out of the grip of her husband.
 The silencing and exclusion of traditionalists covered in the novel and how this changes in
the course of the novel.

I have used a research paper and a Master Thesis written about the silence in the novel as my main
sources in addition to the novel. The research paper is written by a bachelor student in English
Literature and the Master Thesis is written by a master student in English Literature.

Written task type 2

The marginalization, silencing or exclusion of social groups has commonly occurred throughout the
centuries that humans have roamed the earth. In post-colonial Nigeria, this was also the case.
Women and traditionalists were oppressed by the new wave of Catholic admirers of the West. This is
frequently shown in the novel “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie through the eyes of
Kambili. Her grandfather is excluded from the family by his own son and she and her mother are
silenced time and time again by the father.

The novel is written from the point of view of Kambili. She is a silent girl and is very obedient towards
her father. In the novel, she is silenced by the abuse of Papa Eugene, who beats her when she isn’t
the smartest girl in class or she does something ungodly. Still, she writes in the novel that she loves
her father and this shows that she is not able to speak out against her father. This attitude towards
Papa Eugene starts changing when she visits Aunty Ifeoma because her household is made up of free
thinkers who are not limited in what they are allowed to say or do. This opens up a new world for
Kambili, but she is not able to accept this world at first. She sticks to the schedule her father had
given her and doesn’t sing Igbo songs with the rest of the family. She has been silenced by the fear of
her father finding out about it and abusing her. After a while, she starts opening up and even starts
singing Igbo songs. This point in the novel is a turning point as from here on out she is more
loquacious and is less affected by the rules put in place by her father. The silence Papa Eugene had
been successful in achieving was finally broken.

Mama is also silenced by father with the use of abuse. She is shown as a less educated and
submissive female who loves her husband. Her husband was supposed to leave her for a second wife
but never did and she appreciates that. He is also a man of high status and to be the wife of such a
man is a great honour. Because of this, she is never inclined to leave him even though she and her
children are beaten regularly. An example of her submissiveness is when she has to go to church
even though she is ill because of her pregnancy. She declines first and later grudgingly accepts when
father repeats the question in a forceful tone. When they get home after church she is severely
 Jules Nijhuis | AGT5A | 14-05-2019 | D. Tattersall

beaten because she declined first and, because of this incident, suffers from a miscarriage. Aunty
Ifeoma tries to persuade her into leaving Papa Eugene but she never loses her faithfulness to him.

When another pregnancy is ended because of the battering by Papa Eugene, changes are on the
verge of happening. This is also represented by the figurines being used as a comfort after her
husband's assaults being destroyed and mama not willing to replace or repair them. This symbolises
a change in attitude towards Papa Eugene and when he abuses Kambili another time she snaps and
slowly starts poisoning him. Even after she poisoned him, she still had a hard time speaking out
towards him. So even when she has complete power over his life, she is silenced by the grip that he
has on her and by the things he did to her.

Papa Nnukwu is a traditionalist and doesn’t want to have anything to do with Christianity. Because of
this, Papa Eugene sees him as a heathen and forbids his children to speak with him longer than 15
minutes and forbids them to listen to his stories. By using his power over his children, he silences his
father. Papa Nnukwu is also excluded from family events and all ties between the two family
members are cut. Papa Eugene has a second house which is near Papa Nnukwu’s house, but Papa
Nnukwu is not allowed to live there as heathens are not welcome, meaning he is excluded again for
believing differently than Papa Eugene. When the children are at Aunty Ifeoma’s house, Papa
Nnukwu also visits. This is the first time they have been with him for more than 15 minutes and they
will be punished if Papa Eugene finds out. While Papa Nnukwu visits, he tells stories to the children
and they listen carefully. He is less silenced in the presence of the children in comparison to when
they strictly followed Pape Eugene’s rules. When Papa Eugene eventually finds out the children have
been living under the same roof as Papa Nnukwu they are punished mercilessly. Even when Papa
Nnukwu dies and a funeral is held, Papa Eugene doesn’t make an appearance. A son not visiting his
father’s funeral reveals extremely well how excluded and marginalized Papa Nnukwu was because of
Papa Eugene.

In conclusion, Females are routinely silenced and very obedient in the novel because of the abuse by
Papa Eugene. Though in the end, these women find their way of dealing with this abuse and seem to
break free from the silence put in place by Papa Eugene. Traditionalists like Papa Nnukwu are also
silenced and even excluded from the family in the novel as they are seen as heathens by Papa
Eugene and he forbids his children to listen to heathens. Papa Nnukwu also finds a way to deal with
this exclusion by speaking to the children while they are at Aunty Ifeoma’s. These storylines combine
into one from there on out as the recovery from Kambili’s silence and the inclusion of Papa Nnukwu
go hand in hand as a rebellion against the oppression by Papa Eugene. In “Purple Hibiscus”, both
social groups are represented as marginalized, silenced or excluded, but are also shown to break out
of the grip of Papa Eugene and therefore break out of the silence and exclusion he has caused.
(1000 words)

Bibliography
Adichie, C. N. (2003). Purple hibiscus: A novel. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Lavania, J. (2019, February 22). THE CONCEPT OF SILENCE IN PURPLE HIBISCUS BY CHIMAMANDA
NGOZI ADICHIE. University of Putra Malaysia. Retrieved May 14, 2019, from
https://www.academia.edu/28953878/THE_CONCEPT_OF_SILENCE_IN_PURPLE_HIBISCUS_BY_CHIM
AMANDA_NGOZI_ADICHIE

Corneliussen, E. (2012). Breaking the Silence (Master thesis). University of Tromsø, Faculty of
Humanities, Social Sciences and Education. Retrieved May 14, 2019, from
https://munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/4846/thesis.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y